Remembering Warriors of Might and Magic

The second game of me, unexplored again PlayStation One. And the title "Remembering …" approaches this game as well as possible. Surprisingly, but Warriors of Might and Magic deeply sunk into my soul, although this is a fairly simple and not the most interesting game. I only launched it three times, and even then, on the prefix of a friend who came for the weekend to his grandmother. Pass Warriors of Might and Magic I just physically would not have time, because with the world of 3D-game I was still weakly familiar (Dendy our everything) and my skills were pretty bad. But the problem was different: I just did not remember the name of the game. Yes, noble faile, I know, but what to do?

One way or another, from the moment of the last launch, and this was the year 2004, and maybe 2005, more than a dozen years have passed. I then met the capabilities of the emulators. Around then I remembered the game in which the main character runs around the dungeons, spells and can use different weapons. Honestly, led a decent number of pages in search engines. But requests for type "Playing plays about the hero in the dungeon»They did not give anything. I watched the lists of genres too, but I found nothing. Anyway, what a mysterious game is there, which launched three times? There is an English version Vandal Hearts II, And you can go through it, unlike the one that I got in childhood! I think it becomes clear that about Warriors of Might and Magic it was possible to forget for a few more years. Namely until the beginning of 2022 and acquaintance with Duckstation. And then the searches resumed again. It was only necessary to scroll through the lists of games a little more carefully.

As it turned out Warriors of Might and Magic – This is a kind of continuation of the game Crusader of Might and Magic. 3DO has launched a new setting – the world Ardon. "Crusaders", although they were developed for several years, turned out to be quite an average game. 3DO Company I decided to work on errors and less than a year produces Warriors of Might and Magic. In the USA, the game went to PlayStation One December 5, 2000, on PlayStation 2 With a slightly different gameplay on March 17, 2001. In Europe, the release also took place, but a few months later. Initially, it was supposed to be called Crusader of Might and Magic II, However, this idea abandoned. A little later they refused the first -person view, which in the game is still present in some points. So let’s take a look at the version for PlayStation One!

And brutally comes out. We fall from a great height, and the next second we are ready to fight with any enemy!

The very beginning

Warriors of Might and Magic It begins with the fact that the protagonist, whose name is Aleron, is mistakenly accused of everything that can be accused of a person (In fact, he is accused of necromancy, which is also an unpleasant crime). In punishment, a mask is put on him and sent to the dungeon. Not bad … you can make a bunch of bad deeds, and they will scold you and put on a mask. However, this mask is a beacon for monsters, who should be torn to pieces of our poor mistakenly accused. Should, but not obliged! After all, the justice of the world Ardon always gives a second chance. If Aleron can get out, then all his "sins" will be forgiven. Well, if you don’t work out, then … "Spends" will also be forgiven. To some extent.

What? Where? For what?

After falling into the bottomless, as it seemed from the introductory video, the hole, Aleron was surprisingly lucky small, did not receive any wounds when landing. This is where the first questions arise. Where to go? What to do? In fact, it is better not to ask unnecessary questions and just run forward through a crowd of enemies, as Improveing ​​weapons and getting an increase in the character level. You need to do this until we get to the first turning point of the plot, talking a raven. Not that in a fit of anger was killed by death in Darksiders 2, And just a crow. He tells us that the mask can be removed in the monastery, that is so successfully located nearby. Excellent, Aleron goes there. In the monastery, they meet the mistakenly accused, tell him the desired ritual and … that hell, I already told half the plot. Let’s lower unnecessary spoilers and just note that the plot is frankly weak here. He does not move the protagonist forward, opening new facets, he just eats and that’s it. Well, the ending and cliffHanter at the end are just stamping of the same type of plot turns.

I will allow myself a small lyrical digression and I will say that there were already three games in the setting of Ardon. The latter in 2002, exactly before the sad end of the studio itself 3DO. One gets the impression that the developers had high hopes for this series. Therefore, it seems a little strange that the plot is in Warriors of Might and Magic turned out to be crumpled and uninteresting. 3DO After all, she knew how in good scenarios.

The triumph of a bright picture

In the post pro TerraCon I said that the total grayness of the game without an abundance of bright colors, slightly spoils the feeling of the game itself. IN Warriors of Might and Magic Surprisingly, this is not. Despite the fact that almost all the action goes into the dungeon, the colors here are surprisingly saturated and bright. Similarly does not benefit the game. Instead of an oppressive atmosphere of approaching death, and as far as I can understand, it should be, it is still not some kind of resort, Aleron wanders along the corridors, shining with all the colors of the rainbow. Disorder. Yes, it is worth saying that there is a shading, when the object is far enough from the main character, but this is rather due to the possibilities of itself PlayStation One, than with an attempt to add a little heaviness to the atmosphere of the game.

In general, the picture looks quite https://netabetcasino.co.uk/login/ tolerable, again, for the scale of the first PlayStation. Here and the textures of the environment do not look as if they were desperately trying to pull them into the whole environment at once, the models of enemies and Aleron himself look nice, but this is not yet the case. This is where the realization that the hero in the mask after the fall nevertheless received several fractures comes. Oh, this animation of jumps with both legs and hands extended forward!

A separate commentary deserves the doors at the stages in the dungeon. Apparently, in an attempt to diversify the gameplay or just add new elements to rather scarce locations, 3DO In some places, the dungeons pushed the doors. Here are such:

I don’t know why, but they do not cause anything but laughter. Well this is how hackshire it is necessary to approach the issue of artificial restriction of too fast passage to do this? You still put the lattices with such a width between the rods so that the main character can easily squeeze sideways! And … damn it, they are there too.

Open the gate!

Since we still touched them, let me tell you about the artificial delay in the protagonist. The gates are placed on the levels of the dungeon, which you can open, but for this you need to collect … keys? But there is no, the keys must only be collected for chests, and yellow crystals are needed to open the gate, like those that Crash Bandikut collected. Logical? Not really. But there is one more thing necessary to open teleports (there is, yeah). Violet spheres that fall out of enemies or chests. Yes, here in general all objects fall from enemies or chests! But oh well, a reasonable question arises here. But how to find out the number of crystals needed in order to go further? No way. You collect, go to the gate and they open or not. I admit, due to the fact that the first third Warriors of Might and Magic I studied the maximum, learned that the gates are demanded by crystals, only by the middle of the game. In general, the game does not seek to tell you what to do in it. And this is not a feature of the game, the developers were simply either in a hurry or were clamped by the temporary frames that such a simple pop -up element as the right number of crystals, keys or spheres simply did not prescribe. Aleron receives only the inscription “You lack so many pieces of such a thing” and that’s it. Run to explore the corridors and kill all enemies, you can’t pass in a different way. And remember that after each level, collected crystals, spheres and keys will disappear. Closer to the middle of the passage, the game offers small branches, but this is a fiction. At the end of them, it is still a dead end and you need to go only in one direction.

Finally about the fighting and gameplay

Aleron, it seems,, according to the plot, the captain of the guard and knows how to handle the sword just with a bang. Therefore, enemies practically do not pose any danger. The whole fight in Warriors of Might and Magic consists in bringing Aleron closer to the enemy and sprinkle him with blows. Tactics? Yes, who needs it, when the enemies stand for a long time to strike, and their blows do not cause special problems to the hero. Plus, in terms of levels in huge quantities there are peculiar first -aid kits, and the treatment spell can be found. And so the whole game. We beat enemies, pick up the Helk or use a spell, move on, repeat the set of actions. The only ones who can interfere with your iron detting is the boss at the beginning of the game and several enemies after passing the first half. But even there, the entire gameplay is only reduced to the fact that to run up the enemy and strike him. And given that the game has a guidance function, there is no difficulty.

You can say that Aleron, in addition to the sword, carries a shield with it. And the spells can apply. The shield can be, but it is like a wardrobe item here. Perhaps its wearing reduces the total damage received, but how much it helps is unknown. He has a signature, they say, +20 armor, but how much is it on the scale of the game? No one will say, I suppose. But this is only a shield, the weapon has no description. Seriously, even choosing a new sword, you do not know his characteristics, just relying on the fact that since he lies in a later part of the dungeon, then he is better. As for the spells, you are unlikely to use something other than spells of the shield and treatment. Maybe also a zipper, but she spends a strip of mana in seconds. The problem is the clumsy of the protagonist. To get a conditional fireball, Aleron needs to stand and look clearly at the enemy. Otherwise, the shot will fly by. If you squeeze the L2 and R2 buttons, you can switch to the first -person type and shoot, but by that time the enemy will get too close, it is easier to use the sword. For all the time of passage Warriors of Might and Magic There was only one moment when it was necessary to use the first -person view, it was not needed anymore. You can also pump magic, collecting the same tokens with the image of this type of magic. In total, four levels can be pumped. But now it is necessary to do it?

What else can offer Warriors of Might and Magic? In addition to running around and permanent battles, the developers added an element of platforming. Great solution, with such and such an animation of jumps. But the developers did not stop there. Sometimes you need to jump directly from the last pixel of the platform to get to where you need. I think it’s easy to guess that you will often have to replay these moments.

Warriors of Might and Magic not hesitated to throw you endless hordes of enemies. It’s all about the altars or, I would even say, tombstones that constantly respond opponents. I wonder the first two to three times, then quickly gets boring. There are peculiar power fields at the levels, to go through which you can only destroy the crystal that creates it. It is also interesting two three times, then annoying.

It often happens that first you need to destroy a crowd of enemies, and then the crystal will deign to appear. And the place is spavna behind the back. Seconds ten seconds, then the same amount forward, so the passage time is stretched!

Opponents bring some variety at least some diversity. There are quite a lot of them. There are banal beetles of different sizes, here are ghosts, which can be killed only at the moments when they appear, there are a bunch of any other enemies, some can even use magic, which is given by some challenger. And at the end of some levels of Aleron, bosses are waiting. The fight with them with rare exception is all the same as spam of the attack button.

One of the few interesting bosses. We beat off its shells to freeze, and then inflict damage.

A little about saves and management

Small "thank you" I want to say a conservation system. "Save", similar to small teleports, several pieces are scattered at the levels. Thanks to this, in the event of the death of the hero due to an unsuccessful jump over the abyss, you will not have to replay too much. Moreover, the conservation is created in this way, they do not overrite each other. That is, if you wish, you can easily double -check past stages.

And very briefly about management. Aleron is controlled surprisingly well. He reacts to pressing without any delays. And this is quite important, given the fact that the game has to jump a lot. A separate plus can be noted the possibility of turning the camera by pressing either L2 or R2. The L1 and R1 buttons are responsible for the change of weapons or spells. It would be more convenient to see at least some interface when changing spells, but what is, that is,. There is nothing more to say about management.

We will summarize

You can summarize in two words: boring and incomplete. Literally every aspect Warriors of Might and Magic It was made by seventy percent. Take the plot and understand that even this backbone can be improved and improved, adding everything new and new to it. Diversify what is happening with banal notes of those who were in this pit and could not get out. Add after each level by a small video that will disclose the background or other characters in the world. And it would be dummy, but got what they received. The fighting did not get the opportunity to block blows, the auto -based system does not work with spells. But these are basic things with which it would be interesting to play!

At the same time unequivocally say that Warriors of Might and Magic Bad. This is a middle peasant without frills, which was supposed to become a new franchise of a fading 3DO, But he did not. Well, if the game once passed you, then you have not lost anything.

As for my children’s memories, in it Warriors of Might and Magic It was different. For some reason, the images in the head stubbornly draw a huge labyrinth with a bunch of enemies of various stripes and sizes. Aleron seemed to have everything that could. Magnificent swordsman and magician! Yes, in childhood, everything looked different. What a pity that in reality the game was not like.